Jogged for 10 minutes today.

My Race to Miami

As an incentive to actually, you know, train, I am going to start blogging about my progress. This evening I jogged and walked briskly for 15 minutes and got somewhat winded. I would like to increase the amount of jogging I do for 15 minutes before increasing the time. Let's see how long it takes.

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy...

I admit it has been about two years since I have read a newspaper cover to cover. Well, I did today. It felt like I hadn't missed a thing. Same headlines- this crook did that, this maniac shot people in a theater, this politician pointed his/her finger at the other one. Even the comics page was the same very very very old comics. Lynn Johnston produced For Better or For Worse for around thirty years and retired at least 5 years ago. The strip is STILL in the paper. Nothing getting done by the politicians, everyone, especially the one percent, still crying poverty.

Camp HASC

So, we sent Yosh on the bus to Camp HASC this morning. If you ever want a jaw dropping experience, go to the bus pickup for Camp HASC. There was NO center of attention. No one walking around with a clipboard or megaphone saying look at me. NO ONE!!!!!!!!!! This was all about the campers not the staff. I am sure on their application for staff it says egos need not apply. Watch the videos of the camp there is no center of attention, it is all about the campers. NOONE came over to us and said " Hi I'm Joe Shmoe and this is my plan for Yosh for the Summer." Instead it was all about hanging out with the kids. There were no cliques. Sure there were people who knew each other from school, the prior Summer or Yachad, but NO cliques. There was no crowd of people hanging out in one spot shmoozing, it was truly about getting to meet the campers. Yosh is in a bunk with 3 other boys and 5 counselors. That's right 4 campers 5 counselors. That doesn't include the division head or head counselor. Let me reiterate there was no center of attention that any large group has. No one showing off the walky talky by having it on full blast. NOONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ya Gotta Love Bureacrats

So, my wife and I are planning a trip to Niagara Falls this Summer. That means dusting off ye olde passports. This if course, reminds of the last time I got my passport and driver's license.

You see my legal name is Kenneth Ira Stern, I like going by Ken- no offence to my parents as that is what they call me.

The problem? most of my documents, bills; credit cards; etc, are under Ken Stern. So, my birth certificate says Kenneth Ira Stern, how can I get my passport to say Ken? Well I have to bring A LOT of proof that my name really is Ken, therefore my passport expired a few months after Kerri's despite the fact that we tried renewing at the same time. I had to bring additional proof that I am who I say I am. In the end the State Department issued me a passport in the name of Ken I stern...

Now how do I get my driver's license to say Ken Stern? I CAN'T. In addition since my passport, which I brought in as one of my proofs that I am who I say I am says Ken, I can not even renew my license. I had to come back with A LOT more proof that I am who I say I am. In the end the State of New Jersey did NOT let me put Ken on my license, so it still says Kenneth.

There is only one reason I can think of for all the hoops a person has to go through to get a name change- to make sure everyone is who they say they are. In today's day and age, unfortunately that is important and I am not totally against it.

However what criminal or terrorist is going to try to cover their tracks by changing their name from Kenneth to Ken? It would have to be the world's dumbest criminal or terrorist in the history of the world and there have been some real winners in that category. What's really funny is the State Department let me change my name and the State of New Jersey did not.

How to get through life

Be like my son... Smile, laugh and say 'hi' to just about everyone you meet.

My apologies

I had said I would write about Yosh in my blog and yet it seems I mostly write about politics, well here's one more...
"...If that was the only harm in this legislation, we might write it off as another big media business blunder. But this time, it’s more than that. Hollywood’s right to make bad business decisions stops at the point where it threatens our freedom of speech."
Now before I get in trouble for copyright infringement, here is a link to the article: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/why-weve-censored-wired-com/

Big Brother needs to stop protecting Big Business. Please tell your Senators and Representative to say NAY to any form of PIPA and SOPA, even the 'watered down' versions.

Business101

The customer is always right. We took Yosh to Shawnee Mt today to do some snowtubing. But, before we get to that...

Whenever I would run into a store with Yosh still in the car, with his mom, he would get really really upset- to the point of kicking and crying. Today I had to run into a store and while he got a little upset he showed it appropriately without tears...

Now back to Shawnee. Since many kids still had off from school today they were still charging holiday prices and running holiday hours. They were NOT, however running with a holiday staff. Guess what the lines at the snowtube slopes were horrendous, we got to go twice in an hour. When complaining to the supervisor he had answers for everything like mind your own business. He also cut the power to one of the carpets that take you back to the top making Yosh very upset. When I called the supervisor on it he was unapologetic. The good news, we got our money back and Yosh had a good time anyway.

My point is stop talking back to the paying customers and make things right.